


our tequila sunrise on a tuesday afternoon

by weatheredlaw



Series: everything in threes [3]
Category: Iron Man (Comic), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, M/M, Mention of Character Death, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M, lots of sex oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-16
Updated: 2012-08-16
Packaged: 2017-11-12 06:32:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/487769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one is afraid or lonely or desperate. Not anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	our tequila sunrise on a tuesday afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> the final part to this series

_oh please believe me i'm more scared than not  
that oh now this isn't the way_

 

"Why won't you fuck me?" 

The question is blunt enough to hurt, casual enough not to matter. A couple at a table next to them looks over while Pepper drains the wine in her glass. 

"Pardon?"

"You heard me." Jim cuts his steak. This isn't a date, and it doesn't feel one, but Pepper has to resist the urge to reach over and touch his hand every so often, toy with her hair and ask him about his mother. "Do you want dessert?"

"That's a loaded question."

"It's dessert."

"We fuck constantly." Rhodey blinks. "I like their fried ice cream."

"That's an oxymoron. You fuck Bruce constantly. I fuck Bruce constantly. You won't touch me. It says the fried ice cream is out of season."

"Get the cheesecake then. We've fucked."

"We haven't." And he says it like it's final and Pepper knows it's true. They skip dessert and catch a cab in silence. Rhodey's fingers are on her leg and Pepper doesn't feel like pushing him off. She can feel her body wanting to angle into his, wanting to wrap around him and just do it, just clear the air and get it over with. 

At the tower, Rhodey gets off on his own floor. He kisses her, and it's not an invitation. 

More of a question.

_What did we do wrong?_

 

 

The thing is Jim is right. Pepper knows this as she fucks Bruce, because fucking Bruce is easy. Fucking Bruce is like swimming, calm and easy and slipping under because everything about him is desperately controlled, willed into a single pulse of energy. He rolls his hips and Pepper arches into him, heels pressed into his ass as he fucks into her, all careful movements and gentle touches.

He comes and turns her over, letting her ride him as he curves his finger against her clit, his other hand stroking her hip and thigh. She clenches around him, but her body is still wound tight and she wants more because she will always want more.

"What's the matter?" Bruce pushes the hair from her face, fingers latching onto her trembling sides. "What's wrong?" He sits up.

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You're upset. You're trying not to cry and your body is freaking out."

 _My body?_ she wants to scream. Her entire _being_ is freaking out, shaking and coming apart at the foundations. She has lost her footing, the solid foundation of Tony and what he gave her giving out underneath and Rhodey and Bruce are trying to hold her up, but she isn't doing as well as she was yesterday. It's a deteriorating bell curve and Pepper is curled at the bottom of it. Everyone has been lying to her and she has been lying to herself. 

Maybe the only honesty left is Bruce. Jim. Sex. 

 

 

Pepper didn't ask how it happened, she realizes in the days after Tony died. 

Tony died.

An angry laugh crawls out of her throat because it's the first time she's said those words, even to herself.

Tony died. Tony's dead. Tony fell.

_What did we do wrong?_

Pepper makes herself a drink. "What did I do wrong?"

 

 

Pepper goes to work. It's been three months, and she goes to work. She makes phone calls to surprised CEO's and negotiates another building in Vancouver and a couple more in California. Tony had plans for several across the country, wanted to pour money into the project until they'd done it perfectly. For days she hardly leaves her office. JARVIS tells her that Bruce has taken a plane to Guatemala for a week and it doesn't even faze her. He comes back, dirty and warm and she pulls him into her arms because all she's done is fight for days on end. They spend the night together, watching bad TV and screwing and talking about Tony.

In the morning, Jim is in the kitchen, making breakfast and watching Bruce talk about Guatemala City with wide, swooping gestures.

"Wanna take a trip?" He leans over Pepper and kisses her shoulder. 

"Sure."

"Anywhere you want."

"Anywhere with you."

 

 

Pepper works on the towers for days, ignoring messages from Rhodey and pleading notes from Bruce and pushy reminders from JARVIS that she is not, in fact, indestructible.

"No more." Rhodey walks into her office and orders JARVIS to shut everything down. "Go to bed. It's after two in the morning."

"I have faxes to send."

"They can wait."

" _You_ can wait. This is work Rhodey. The job I had before I lost my fucking mind and I--"

"You didn't lose your mind. You lost Tony. We all did."

Pepper freezes, drops her pen and cradles her face in her hands.

"Pepper--"

"I am so tired of feeling so horrible all the time."

Rhodey circles the desk, putting his arms around her and lifting her, drawing her from the grave, from the bottom of the ocean. He lifts her because he's strong, because she is small, because she lets him. "Come to bed, Pep."

She fucks him then. She fucks him in the half-dark of the room with Bruce stretched out above them, his eyes half-closed as he strokes himself, watching the way Pepper's fingers spread out along Rhodey's chest, knuckles flushed red against his skin. Bruce draws his hand over Jim's shoulder, watches Pepper's face. He looks almost reverent, worshipping the sight of their bodies sliding together, fitting just so. Pepper wonders if she looks worthy. If she is worthy.

_There is no one who will ever mean to me what you do right now._

Pepper resists the frightening, painful urge to chant Tony's name as she comes, Rhodey's slipping out just as easily, begging and pleading until she can't move anymore and he his lifting his hips, rhythm falling off just before he finishes. Bruce already came and he leaves to room and comes back with a damp cloth, cleans himself and wipes the cool rag over Pepper's shoulders and back, runs it over Jim's chest. JARVIS turns down the lighs and they settle in together, just like the first time, like the first few days of learning to be together.

She wants Tony. She wants Tony so much it is rubbing her raw inside, until she's worried her words will be red and swollen in her mouth. 

But in the morning, Bruce is gone from her bed and Jim is getting dressed and she wants them like something new. 

_There is no one who will ever mean to me what you do right now._

She hadn't said the same, and she wishes now that she had.

Jim sits on the end of the bed, curling his hand around her exposed ankle. 

"I love you," he says. "I love you both. It's killing me and it's wrong, I think. But I do."

"It isn't wrong."

"I told Tony I'd look out for you, if something happened to him. I don't think he meant this."

"I don't think he'd care." She sits up, taking his hand and kissing his wrist. 

"Bruce left."

"I figured."

"He said he'd be back after the weekend. I don't know, he was in a hurry."

"He usually is." 

Quietly, under the guise of comfort, he strips and lays between her thighs, tongue pressed hard on her clit. When he fucks her, she sighs, settling under his weight and curling her legs around his waist. She holds onto the last vestiges of the sunrise and sobs as morning comes and no one is afraid or lonely or desperate. Not anymore.

Jim comes and Pepper holds him, her chin resting on top of his head. "He wanted me to look out for you, too, you know. He wanted me to look after you both."

That's why she called herself _Rescue._

 

 

_how do we not fade away?_


End file.
